Saturday, July 28, 2012

Having to be careful when preparing gluten free meals, makes it difficult to make easy or quick meals. Finally, I am confortable in doing both. I can always check the fridge, freezer or pantry and put together a meal!

The issue that arises most for me is the calories and carbs! The metabolism takes a nap once one is over 50, so I plan when even buying food! It was so easy to lose as quickly as I gained in my 30s, but no more!

At one time, I hated canned or frozen vegetables, now I love those unseasoned microwavable frozen mixed vegetables, green beans, and peas. I prefer some vegetables fresh, but I will blanch and freeze them. I even like plain canned beans now.

There are so many things to do with canned beans other than just heating and eating. I have even experimented with dips & spreads and desserts!

This day, I had a half-bag julienne cut carrots in the vegetable bin and no left-overs. First thought was grab chips, then I realized that I would save those calories for a cookie instead!
This meal came together so fast, even I was surprised!

If more creaminess is preferred, use more sauce, of course the calories will increase. Store any unused sauce in refrigerator.

Rotisserie chicken can be substituted for chicken breast

Bread crumbs can be substituted for croutons, but the flavor will not be the same. Toast them first.

1Actually, used three biscuits to make croutons. King Arthur Flour had a recipe for Easy Self-Rising Biscuits, which tempted me to make biscuits…. Of course, I used a whole grain mix, adding Hi-maize fiber.

Well, I didn’t want to eat a biscuit for the next five days, so decided to just make croutons, instead of buying them. The croutons came out perfect!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

It has been really hot the past two weeks or raining. Of course when it’s hot, all I think about is something COLD! So it’s been frozen smoothies each morning. I’ve even thought about making one for lunch or dinner, but decided I needed to eat some food.

Today I was seriously thinking of making ice cream, but just didn’t want to spend lots of time making too much. So I pulled out strawberries, raspberries and half a banana and my favorite immersion blender.

With a few whirrs and a little of this and that plus a little sweetener, it was tasty. So into the freezer it went to ‘firm’ up.

I am one for making easy, simple and quick food. The older I get, the simpler and quicker it gets!
Feel free to use all strawberries or other berries for this treat,

Enjoy! Chocolate Raspberry Strawberry Frozen TreatIngredients

1 cup frozen raspberries

1 cup frozen strawberries, sliced

1/2 banana, frozen

1/2 tsp vanilla powder (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

5 pkts Pure Via Stevia sweetener (or about 3 tbsp other sweetener)

2 tbsp cocoa (used Ghirardelli)

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Final Step Ingredients

1 cup whipped cream

1/4 cup chopped almonds

2 tbsp frozen strawberries, chopped

Procedure

1.Using a blender, blend until all is smooth and fluffy.

2.If using a stick blender, cut the banana into slices.Stir as necessary and push down.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

First, I must say I buy blueberries and strawberries in warehouse sizes, freeze them during ‘in season’ times. Costco sells the very large container of the Driscoll’s berries, so I am stocked when fall and winter rolls around.

I enjoy lots of frozen smoothies during the warm months. No matter the season, my smoothie is always frozen!

I have done several recipe and blog posts on the many ways of incorporating vegetables and fruits into a frozen meal. This will be the first time making a frozen smoothie using raspberries! Thanks to Danielle at The Baddish Group for the Driscolls coupons!

To freeze berries, stem, gently wash and drain. They can also be left on paper towels on a large baking sheet on counter overnight to dry, if the area is below 75 degrees.
Prepare berries, cover a baking sheet with cellophane wrap. Place each berry top down, not touching. Cover baking sheet with cellophane. Place in freezer until frozen, usually overnight. Remove, using wrap, quickly lift berries and pour into a zipper bag or freezer container. Return to freezer until ready for use.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Easy, quick, reduced carbs/sodium/sugar and gluten-free are the requirements I work with when planning meals. Not saying I want it to taste like cardboard either!

I like to cook, but I don’t really like to cook. How I like to cook is have somewhat of a plan of making a meal with ingredients I have decided to eat.

I am always craving pizza, but just can’t see myself eating lots of carb loaded pizza crust now. Maybe I could do that when I was a twenty-something, but not now. My metabolism has changed over the past two years quite a bit. So to keep enjoying ‘treats’, I have to re-formulate them. I have a little fun sometimes just pulling out the mixer, cocoa or chocolate and saying “I’m making brownies or a cake”.

For some reason, whenever I am in the grocery store, I look at the eggplant and portabellas. If I see a good looking eggplant, I will buy one. Then It goes in the vegetable bin. Then I have to decide what to do with it. Most of the time, it’s grilled or sautéed and served on the side. I am sort of worn out adding it to baked pasta, so I was planning on just making Eggplant Parmigianino. As I began to think about it, and how complicated it would be…., so thought why not just add pizza ingredients and layer it so it would hold together like pizza?

Carefully pour the water along the sides of the dish. Gently tilt the dish side to side to spread water over bottom of dish. It will evaporate thru cooking and reduce the amount of oil needed to cook eggplant.

Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Remove cover, bake about additional 20 minutes until cheese begins to brown.

Sprinkle the shredded Parmesan cheese evenly over the dish.

Return to oven for about 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Remove from oven; allow to sit for 5 minutes.Using a hard rubber spatula, go around the dish freeing any sides that may be sticking to the dish.

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About Me

I am retired AND I am severely gluten-sensitive.
I retired July 31, 2009 after almost 30 years in Information Technology.
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After discovering that I cannot eat anything containing wheat-gluten in 2006, I am learning new ways to make meals. Whole grains are now a part of my food list more than ever before.
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Baking has always been enjoyable to me. I am really enjoying converting or creating new gluten free goodies. Gluten free baking ingredients can be very expensive. Some cost cutting can be achieved by grinding your own nut flours as needed because they tend to be used less than others. My new goal is to compile an illustrated gluten-free cookbook.
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I hope to also show that not all gluten-intolerant people are under-weight, young or of obvious European Descent. There are many of us ‘baby boomers’ ‘senior citizens’ ‘over-weight’ or ‘old people’ who have severe reactions to gluten!
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Hopefully diagnosis will be made earlier so that no one suffers the related auto-immune diseases that seem to follow pattern from non-absorption of necessary nutrients.